From The Editor's Desk
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Survival Of The Innovative
1/4/2017
I’ve written a couple of recent columns about the potential Trump effect on trade and taxes for U.S. retailers. These are topics that you should be on top of. Despite the fact that they’re out of your immediate control, you can, and of course should, make your voice heard. In the NRF and RILA, the retail industry has a solid lobbying presence in D.C. The strong representation of a collective industry is prerequisite to influence. If you don’t like what you see coming, join them, and fight city hall.
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Retailer Innovation Award Winners Announced!
1/2/2017
Welcome to 2017. We hope Innovative Retail Technologies subscribers have their best, most profitable year yet. We’re kicking off 2017 by announcing the Winners and Finalists of our inaugural Retailer Innovation Awards. We’re delighted to announce that 27 retailers have been awarded across the categories of Omni-Channel Retailing, In-Store Operations, Workforce Management, Customer Engagement, and Loss Prevention.
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Rewarding Retail Innovation
12/19/2016
Taken at face value, there’s really nothing special about the word, innovation. Merriam-Webster defines it as the introduction of something new, or a new idea, method, or device. New doesn’t necessarily translate to good or better, and by that definition, technology innovation in retail is something of a commodity. Silicon Valley is brimming with it. It’s bubbling and oozing out of so-called “retail innovation labs” in merchant headquarters from New York to San Francisco. In short order, we’ll see hundreds of innovations under one roof at the NRF BIG show.
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Unexpected Opportunities At The NRF BIG Show
12/14/2016
I make a good part of my living talking to retail professionals about their IT and operations initiatives. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed hundreds, if not thousands of interviews with retail execs. Whenever we’re discussing projects that involved specific retail solutions providers and vendors, I’m sure to ask those execs how their relationships with those vendors came to pass.
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2017 NRF BIG Show Predictions
12/8/2016
The New Year is almost here, which means the 2017 NRF BIG Show is almost here. The convention and expo, which will be held from January 15-17 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, promises to deliver “Innovations, Connections, Solutions.” I’ll skip the noise of the who, what, and when — you know you’re in for insightful sessions and game-changing technologies as well as we do. From a prediction standpoint, however, here’s what I think we’ll see at the 2017 BIG Show.
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Trump On Trade: Will Retail Take A Hit?
12/1/2016
Throughout the presidential campaign, president-elect Donald Trump stuck to a seven-point trade platform that included, in brief, the following talking points...
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E-Commerce For The Holiday Win
11/21/2016
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is Thursday and that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are also around the corner. This year, shoppers will have more time to eat, drink, and be thankful since several retailers, including hh gregg, DSW, Home Goods, Home Depot, and more have decided to keep their doors closed on Thanksgiving in an effort to help their workforce (as well as their customers) spend more quality time with family and friends. Even the country’s largest mall, Mall of America, will remain closed on Thanksgiving.
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Will Trump Be Good For Retail?
11/10/2016
President-Elect Donald Trump’s candidacy has left precisely zero room for indifference. Safely assuming you’ve had a pulse and a brain for the past 18 months, you’ve undoubtedly formed opinions about the man. It’s also safe to assume that many of those opinions are derived from his remarks on social and humanitarian issues. For the purposes of this column, forgive me for setting those aside. Let’s take an objective look at two of his proposals—immigration and tax reform—that might directly impact the business of retail.
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Sneak Peek At IRT Retailer Innovation Awards
11/3/2016
We just wrapped up our inaugural Retailer Innovation Awards, and we could not be more excited to unveil the Winners and Finalists in a special report Matt Pillar’s penning for our January/February 2017 issue. To say that the number of thoughtful nominations far exceeded our expectations is an understatement — they were riddled with actionable data and quantifiable results from best of breed retailers both large and small. The competition was fierce, but we think you’ll agree that our Winners earned the title.
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Transparency And Consumer Trust
10/27/2016
The public’s distrust of has never been on more clear display than it has this election cycle. Unfortunately for those who sell to the public, it’s a sentiment that’s contagious.